“We found a pitcher plant that differs markedly from all other known species,” says Martin Dančák of Palacký University in Olomouc, Czech Republic, lead author of the study, published in the journal. PhytoKeyswhere his team described the new species.
“In fact, this species places its pitchers up to 11 cm long underground, where they form in cavities or directly in the ground and traps animals that live underground, usually ants, mites and beetles,” he adds.
Only three other groups of carnivorous plants are known to catch underground prey, but they all use very different capture mechanisms and, unlike Nepenthes pudica, can only catch tiny organisms.